Univ. of Texas chancellor elected to Yale Corporation

Francisco Cigarroa ’79, chancellor of the University of Texas System and the first Latino to lead a major American university system, will be the newest member of the Yale Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.

In an election this spring, Yale alumni chose Cigarroa from a ballot that also included Susanna Krentz ’80, a health care consultant and former Association of Yale Alumni chair, and David Singer ’84, co-founder and CEO of three biotech companies. Cigarroa’s six-year term as an alumni fellow of the Corporation begins July 1.

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Cigarroa, who did not return a request for comment, will replace Margaret Marshall LAW ’76. Marshall, whose term expires June 30, is currently the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and the first woman to hold that position.

The Corporation includes six alumni fellows, elected by Yale alumni for six-year terms, in addition to its 10 successor trustees, so-called because the Corporation chooses their successors at the end of their six- to 12-year terms. Each spring, the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee, part of the Association of Yale Alumni, devises of a ballot of two to five candidates, all graduates of Yale College or one of the University’s graduate or professional schools. In late April, Yale graduate and professional school alumni and Yale College graduates from five or more years ago receive an online ballot from the Secretary’s Office, or a paper ballot if they specifically request one, and have about a month to cast their votes before ballots close in late May.

Roughly 25 percent of Yale alumni vote in the election annually. (In comparison, approximately 10 percent of Harvard University alumni vote in a similar election for members of Harvard’s Board of Overseers.)

Before becoming chancellor of the UT system, Cigarroa worked as a surgeon. At Yale, he was in Calhoun College and majored in biology.